


When You Can't See Her

by dengekirose



Series: Both Blood and Water [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acceptance, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Mother-Daughter Relationship, One Shot, POV Alternating, Platonic Relationships, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 15:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11210796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dengekirose/pseuds/dengekirose
Summary: Colleen Holt has lost her husband, her son, and now her daughter to the Garrison. She doesn't know if Katie is dead or alive, on this world or the next. Pidge is plagued with her own problems on the castle, from physical to emotional. Both Colleen and Pidge receive help and support from those that become a second family to them.Alternating POV (between Pidge and Colleen), platonic relationships, coping with loss in HEALTHY WAYS





	When You Can't See Her

Colleen Holt was a woman of habit. She always set the table before sweeping the floors, and always swept the floors before making breakfast. Wilted flowers and unopened letters of condolences flooded Katie’s bedroom. Colleen never had to clean her daughter’s room before. She wasn’t starting now.

Sam and Matt Holt were dead. Katie was presumably dead. After all, the Garrison never retrieved her body. Regardless, Colleen set plates for four and ate her breakfast in silence. 

She heard a knock at the door, but kept picking at her eggs. _It will pass._

Louder knocks.

_It never does, though?_

\---

“Pidge! We really need your help!” Lance shrieked. 

Pidge’s eyes snapped open and her legs got caught in the sheets as she jumped out of bed. Her heart leapt to her throat as she heard crashes followed by Hunk’s incoherent screams. The castle’s internal alarm system activated during her mid-sprint toward the cries, the thumping of her feet now interjecting with flashes of red light and deafening blares. 

_No no no no no no no no NO!_

No armor, no weapon, and no sign of her crew.

Pidge turned sharply into the kitchen and her vision blurred as Keith swept her to the side with his arm just as a stream of fire licked her hair. “Down!”, he said while plunging Pidge’s head to the ground. She felt a gust of wind above her from…whatever was attacking. Cracks of metal and burnt wire pieces covered the floor. As she turned to face the intruder, Shiro’s weaponized fist made direct contact with what looked to be a metal dragon. More of its scales shed off and were replaced quickly by new ones. 

Its eyes glowed green and shifted directly at Pidge. _Shit._

\---

“Colly, it’s lovely to see you. It’s been a long week without you.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“You’re right. I don’t have to.” Yaima smiled and seated her on the couch. Colleen followed after a pause, her face reflecting something akin to guilt.

“You know I don’t have to. But you also know I can’t do this without you.” She held Colleen’s hand lightly. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Lance. And his recklessness, his kindness. And Katie-”

“I know.” Colleen locked her fingers gently with Yaima’s, using her other hand to wipe her growing tears.

Yaima chuckled. “By the way, do I smell new perfume on you? I’m glad you’re getting out, but it’s a really strong smell of old lady and flowers. Reminds me of my mother, and not in a good way!”

“I’ll get rid of that.” Colleen slipped a soft smile. “Actually…we’ll get rid of that.” 

\---

Pidge didn’t know why she ran straight toward a fire-breathing metal dragon hellbeast (as she dubbed it), yet here she was. Its nostrils flared and emitted smoke in preparation for the next fire blast. Pidge rolled out of the way in the nick of time toward the kitchen counters. 

“WHATAREYOUDOING?” Hunk squeaked out from his impromptu shelter of baking trays and cans. “That thing can track your movements before you make them!”

“Is that Cheese Whiz spray? Where did you even get that?” 

“This is NOT the best time for those questions!! Also, it’s Lance’s. Why would you think I-“

Another breathe of fire Pidge narrowly avoided, but not before grabbing two Cheese Whiz bottles. 

“Listen, whatever you’re about to do IT’S A BAD IDEA-“

“I KNOW!!” Pidge yelled at Hunk, who started throwing his canned good fortress at the mini mecha dragon to distract it. “Take cover!”, she yelled at Lance and Shiro. Its nostrils flared again right before Pidge stuck the bottles in and immediately ran toward her team. “DOWN!”, she screamed as she caught Keith’s head and pushed him behind the counters. The fire rapidly expanded and burst the cheese bottles in a mini explosion, taking the dragon’s head with it. 

A few seconds pass, without incident. Lance popped his head from behind the counter. “It’s not regenerating!” His contagious smile spread to the rest of his teammates. 

Pidge sighed in relief. “Well. Good morning, guys.”

 

\---

“COLLEEN!”, Yaima clutched her chest at the sight of Katie’s bedroom. She pinched her nose at a whiff of old, pungent flowers shortly after. 

For the first time in a while, Colleen Holt giggled.

“I know, it’s awful.”

“I’ll say! I don’t care how well-meaning these neighbors of yours are, Bulothean lilies are a tacky and…overstimulating choice.” Yaima wrinkled her nose as she grabbed a bouquet and tossed it into the trash.

“That too, I suppose.” 

Yaima and Colleen worked in silence for a while, sorting through letters and old flowers. Yaima shuffled through a particularly large pile of papers, and stopped herself as she saw the Garrison label.

“I moved here after I heard the news. You remember, right?” Yaima’s smile did not reach her eyes. Colleen knew that expression well. “Gave the Garrison rightful hell for stealing our children away from us.”

Colleen chuckled. “Until they kicked you out and told you never to step foot in there again.” She took the letter from Yaima’s hands and tossed it with the flowers. “Nice to see you following my daughter’s footsteps.”

\---

“So why was there a mecha dragon here?”, Shiro asked after wiping (about subsequently, smearing) artificial cheese off his clothes.

Hunk pointedly looked at Lance. “You just HAD to try to hard-boil that egg we got from our last mission.”

“How was I supposed to know that it would hatch??” Lance went into a defensive position.

“It was a METALLIC egg from a METAL planet with METAL dragons, Lance!” 

“Yes! Thank you, Keith!”, Hunk grinned. “Now let’s please have breakfast, non-flambé, thank you very much. Shiro! Set the plates. I’ll get started on the NORMAL eggs.” 

Shiro mock-saluted, “Yes chef!” 

Hunk continued to work his magic in the kitchen, the Voltron team following into a steady rhythm as they always do. Pidge trailed alongside Shiro, folding the napkins. She methodically formed cone folds for the silverware, getting lost in her work. It (fortunately) wasn’t commonplace for the team to do battle so early or without their suits. Everyone seemed a little tired, even Allura and Coran as they came down from their rooms. 

“You thought it was the fire alarm?”, Lance gaped at Coran.

“Well, my grandfather has fire drills, Galra drills, and gravity disturbance drills automatically programmed into the castle! There was one scheduled for today, though I meant to keep it a surprise from you. After all, it is a drill. Now you know that it could happen any other time today!”

A collective groan swept the kitchen. Pidge tried to focus on her napkin-work again.

“Hey, Pidge is everything okay?”

She looked up at Shiro with surprise. “Oh yeah, I was just remembering something…”

\---

“I can’t believe you let her step foot into the kitchen again!”, Yaima threw her hands up with laughter. 

“She hates it when I tell that story. The kitchen smelled like burnt rice for days, and every time that we tried to open up the rice cooker, the fire alarm would go off. It was like it was cursed! We eventually had to trash it. Katie was so embarrassed.”

“Do you think she’s gotten any better at cooki-“, Yaima clasped her mouth shut. “Oh no. Colly, I didn’t mean to…“

Colleen laughed. “Wherever that girl is – Heaven, in this world or the next – I hope she stays away from their kitchen.” She turned away from her friend to wipe fresh tears from her eyes. “But to be honest, I wouldn’t mind the smell of burnt rice again.”

“Beats the smell of Bulothean lilies.”

“Yaima!”

\---

“I think the thing I miss the most is video games. My mom was always my player two when Matt and dad were on missions.”

“I miss my dad’s stories that he told my brother and me at night. Even though it was a long time ago, like, I feel like it caught up to me just now.”

“I miss going to the beach with my cousins. Nothing beats sun and surf in Cuba.”

“I remember before you guys came along to the Garrison, my parents would visit during family day and give me a month’s worth of food.”

“I miss my dog.”

“Keith, you had a dog and didn’t bring him along??”

As stories were passed along the table, Pidge felt herself smile for the first time while thinking about her mother. And she allowed herself to be happy thinking about her family.

_Mom, I swear when we’re done with the Galra and when I find dad and Matt, I’m coming straight back for you._

**Author's Note:**

> A few quick things! Bulothean lilies are fictional, and Yaima is a name I gave to Lance's mom (since she was unnamed). In addition, I do not know the family situations of the Voltron crew, so I made it up. I don't know whether I want this work to be in a series, exploring different POVs from the crew, or as a stand alone. If it will be a series, expect more Allura (because I didn't know what to do with her in this one, tbh). Until then, I will post it under a series.
> 
> COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED BECAUSE WRITING IS NEW AND HARD ;_;


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